http://ronaldarichardson.

com/2008/01/30/the -things-they-carried/

http://ronaldarichardson.com/2008/01/30/thethings-they-carried/

- Relates a story about himself that he has never told anyone before. - Summer of 1968 when he was 21 and just graduated from Macalester College hes drafted to serve in the Army. - Doesnt understand war, what it is, why he should fight it. I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldnt happen. I was above it (OBrien 41). - Spends his summer working at a pig slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant. - Work is messy and unpleasant, feels isolated and as if his life is going out of control. - Debates whether to cross into Canada from to avoid the draft. - Leaves work one day to flee to Canada driving along the Rainy River the natural border between the U.S. and Canada. - Tip Top Lodge - Meets the owner, Elroy Berdahl. - Spends six days with him. - Finally decides he will go off to war, because he is too embarrassed not to. I loved baseball and hamburgers and cherry Cokes and now I was off on the margins of exile, leaving my country forever, and it seemed so impossible and terrible and sad (OBrien 51).

http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/Writing Vietnam/obrienpreface.html

 the narrator and protagonist of the story. Concludes that his feelings of obligation toward his family and country outweigh the influences of his own politics. the keeper of the Tip Top Lodge. eighty- one years old, skinny and shrunken and mostly bald (OBrien 48). Father figure to OBrien as he makes the decision of whether or not he will go to war. - mirror

http://tropakanina.blogspot.com/2010/02/thingsthey-carried.html

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy_ hr.asp?id=23

Fear of Embarrassment or Shame as Motivation:

- theme apparent throughout the novel starting from the very beginning with Jimmy Cross and his guilt regarding Ted Lavenders death - Obrien feels guilty about going to Vietnam against his principles and fears losing the respect of his parents and the law if he decides against it.

Subjection of Truth:

- Obrien uses the subjection of truth to develop a sense of emotional truth - although he does not use true facts all the time he attempts to provide the reader with a precise account of the underlying feelings behind a given situations and make them more relatable or personal to the reader

* Elroy Berdahl, Tip Top Lodge, Canadian border

1. OBrien considers himself a coward for deciding to go to war. I survived, but its not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to war (OBrien 61).

2. Went through all of college, successfully graduated, only to be drafted to war.

3. Wants so badly to escape from war, but even when he has the opportunity to, he is unable to come to terms with reality. 4. He works in a meat packing industry removing blood clots and then goes off to war
http://evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/2010/06/learn ing-compassion-from-story-truth-timo%E2%80%99brien%E2%80%99s-the-things-theycarried.html

http://bookstove.com/book-talk/the-things-they-carried-on-the-rainy-river-analysis/

- magic realism concept that writers and readers have to believe in their stories and then in the end they find out a some truth

- concept of escaping something and becoming free

http://www.hmhbooks.com/timobrien/resources.shtml

 Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." An Introduction to Fiction. By X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Eleventh ed. Boston: Longman, 2010. 516-17. Print. Marquez, Gabriel G. "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." An Introduction to Fiction. By X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Eleventh ed. Boston: Longman, 2010. 35257. Print. O'Brien, Tim. "On the Rainy River." The Things They Carried: a Work of Fiction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.